Volunteers who saved a closure-threatened village library have now been running the facility successfully for a year.
Wilsden Community Library, based at the village hall in Townfield, was the subject of a campaign to keep it open, following a proposed closure in 2011.
Bradford Council announced the closure following major cuts to its budget.
However, villagers responded by setting up a steering group to recruit and train volunteers to keep the library open for lending and internet services. The community facility was officially opened by Baroness Margaret Eaton on April 3 last year.
Simon Dickerson, a parish councillor and chairman of the Wilsden Community Library Steering Group, said: “We’ve managed very well over the last 12 months. We’ve got a core of 14 to 15 volunteers who provide a good service for the village.
“The library is only open one day a week, which is what we had when Bradford ran it. But although it’s run by volunteers it’s still part of the Bradford Libraries system, so people can order books from other Bradford libraries here. We’ve got about five to six thousand books on our shelves.”
The library is open on Tuesdays from 9.15am to 7pm, and also has computers with internet access.
